“Some Member States”, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said in his Mansion House speech just a month ago, believe “that the only possible route for future financial services access [to Europe’s single market] is through the EU’s existing, off-the-shelf, equivalence arrangements. I don’t agree with that."

He then went on to explain why the equivalence regime would not work for UK-EU financial services trade. “It is piecemeal, unilateral and unpredictable”, he said “and therefore does not provide the stability that a well-regulated market requires. “I have heard talk of ‘enhanced equivalence’, [but] I have not yet seen a credible proposal for what it might mean or a clear articulation of how it...